Debt in Syria

Household debt often arises when families borrow for food, health care, rent or livelihood needs. OCHA reporting documents borrowing and informal credit for essential spending in northwestern and northeastern Syria, and an IRC assessment in northern Syria found that about 60% of households bought food on credit. Family and friends, shopkeeper credit, local moneylenders, Sanduq member-owned rural finance and community savings groups can provide access when formal credit is unavailable, but fees, repayment dates and enforcement are often negotiated privately and may not provide standardized protection. Formal lenders include the Commercial Bank of Syria, the Agricultural Cooperative Bank, the Industrial Bank, the Popular Credit Bank, the Real Estate Bank, the Savings Bank, licensed private banks and licensed microfinance institutions. In Autonomous Administration areas, the Central Monetary and Payments Office (CMPO) supervises the separate Northeast Syria framework; licensed microfinance institutions may lend but may not take deposits, and this framework does not apply nationwide. A formal loan contract normally sets the principal, contractual interest, late interest, penalties, repayment schedule, guarantees and collateral. The borrower must provide the required documents, repay as agreed and maintain pledged collateral; guarantors can remain liable, and a lender may request additional security. The Commercial Code Law 33/2007 provides the main framework for commercial contracts, mortgages, negotiable instruments, protective composition (صلح واقٍ), bankruptcy (إفلاس) and related court procedures. Civil Procedure Law 1/2016 governs civil-court enforcement. The trader and company insolvency pathway is evidenced, but a standalone personal-insolvency procedure for consumers and a nationwide household debt-advice system are not evidenced. For distressed public-bank loans or credit facilities granted before 18 March 2026, Decree 70/2026 provides time-limited relief. For balances up to SYP 100 million, repayment within three months can waive contractual interest, late interest and penalties; repayment within six months waives late interest and penalties while contractual interest remains. For larger balances, repayment within three months waives 50% of contractual and late interest plus penalties, while repayment within six months waives 30%. Foreign-currency debt receives a full waiver of interest and penalties within three months, or a 50% waiver of contractual and late interest with full penalty waiver within six months; an SYP balance may be paid in US dollars at the Central Bank of Syria rate. The rescheduling process generally covers debt above SYP 100 million or its foreign-currency equivalent, requires a request to the bank headquarters or branch, a 15% good-faith payment and a maximum term of three years. The bank should decide within one month and the agreement should be signed within 15 days. Missed payments can cancel the arrangement after three consecutive missed instalments or five missed instalments in total. Guarantees remain, additional collateral may be required, and court or enforcement proceedings are suspended during the arrangement but resume after cancellation; court fees and other costs are not waived. The Ministry extended the relevant deadlines by one month from 19 June 2026, while European Investment Bank facilities follow a separate Finance Ministry committee process. Public debt is a separate issue from household debt: World Bank data for 2024 recorded external debt of about USD 4.757 billion, including USD 3.410 billion in public and publicly guaranteed debt and USD 731 million in IMF credit, while a 2025 macro-fiscal assessment reported external arrears of about USD 20.9 billion, close to 98% of GDP. These datasets are not reconciled and should not be treated as one definitive figure. Saudi Arabia and Qatar cleared USD 15.5 million in International Development Association arrears on 12 May 2025; other legacy arrears remain a reform concern. Syria's credit infrastructure also remains weak: a historical World Bank 2020 snapshot recorded a legal-rights score of 1 out of 12, no credit-bureau coverage, 7.1% credit-registry coverage, roughly three years for insolvency proceedings and recovery of 46.7 cents per dollar. Those figures are not a current benchmark, although a World Bank financial-sector project approved in August 2026 targets credit infrastructure, bank asset reviews, supervision and digital payments. No reliable nationwide dataset currently establishes household-debt totals, private-bank non-performing loans, informal-lender pricing or court recovery outcomes.